- Uganda: Court Releases Prominent Rights Activist on Bail
Source: US News & World Report
“A Ugandan court on Wednesday released on bail a prominent rights activist whose detention was seen by campaign groups as part of a widespread crackdown on dissent ahead of the country’s general election that was held on January 15. Sarah Bireete, who heads the Centre for Constitutional Governance, a Kampala-based pressure group, was detained on December 30 after questioning the accuracy of the voter register to be used in the poll. She was later charged with offences related to alleged unlawful disclosure of voters’ information. … Rights groups and the opposition have long accused his government of using the military to suppress dissent. The government denies those accusations.” (01/28/26)
- Safety Board Blames FAA For Multiple Failures in DC Crash
Source: New York Times
“The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the Federal Aviation Administration had approved dangerous flight routes that allowed an Army helicopter to fly into the path of a passenger jet over the Potomac River on Jan. 29, 2025, to calamitous results. … the investigating board also castigated the agency for not doing enough to respond to warnings about longtime risks to safety and found a complacent culture within the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport that relied too heavily on pilots in the airspace being able to see and steer clear of each others’ aircraft, a practice called visual separation. They also determined that insufficient warnings from the air traffic controller to the pilots of the Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet involved in the crash, and altimeters that, unbeknown to the helicopter pilots, habitually gave faulty readings of altitude, also contributed to the tragic crash.” (01/28/26)
- Hungary: Regime charges Budapest mayor for allowing banned pride march
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Hungarian prosecutors have charged Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony over his role in arranging last year’s gay pride march in the capital city, which attracted hundreds of thousands of people despite a ban. Prosecutors have ‘filed charges and seek a fine against the mayor of Budapest, who organised and led a public gathering despite a police ban,’ their office said in a statement announcing the case on Wednesday. … Since returning to power in 2010, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been tightening his grip over the country and has targeted groups advocating for human rights. Orban’s conservative government has also pushed for legislation promoting traditional family values and steadily rolled back LGBTQ rights. In 2025, his Fidesz party amended laws and the constitution to ban the annual pride march, drawing protests from critics and the European Union.” (01/28/26)
- Social Security Isn’t a Retirement Account — and Congress Must Stop Pretending It Is
Source: The Daily Economy
by Romina Boccia“Many Americans think Social Security works like a retirement account. In Cato polling conducted in August, about one in four said they believed they had a personal account within the system. That misconception didn’t arise by accident. Politicians routinely describe payroll taxes as ‘contributions,’ speak of a ‘trust fund’ as if it held real savings, and defend benefits as ‘earned.’ Social Security is not a savings program. It is a pay-as-you-go transfer system. Today’s workers’ payroll taxes fund today’s retirees’ benefits. There is no individual account accumulating a balance over time. Payroll taxes are taxes, neither deposits nor savings. Its early history makes that clear.” (01/28/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/social-security-isnt-a-retirement-account/
- The Real Reason Beef Costs More: Fewer Cows, Not Corporate Greed
Source: Reason
by Jack Nicastro“It’s not corporate greed that’s driving up the price of beef at the grocery store; it’s the fact that it’s now much more expensive for meat-packers to buy beef from farms. This isn’t due to cattle farmers colluding to raise prices. There are simply fewer cows. The American beef inventory shrank from 30.9 million in January 2021 to 27.9 million in January 2025, according to the most recent Agriculture Department data. From January 2021 to January 2026, cattle and calves on feed for the U.S. slaughter market, the main indicator of the six-month supply of beef, declined by 500,000 head. This decrease is attributable to a combination of weather, disease, and reduced imports.” (01/28/26)
https://reason.com/2026/01/28/the-real-reason-beef-costs-more-fewer-cows-not-corporate-greed/
- Bigger government is enemy of liberty
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal“There is no ‘right vs. left,’ no ‘conservative vs. liberal,’ no ‘Republican vs. Democrat.’ These labels are deliberate distractions — tools used by the true culprit to keep people confused, angry, and divided. The real conflict has always been simpler and more fundamental: the State against you and your liberty. Anyone who helps expand the State, either by giving it more wealth, providing an excuse to gain more power, or cheering its growth, is an enemy of individual liberty and human rights.” (01/28/26)
- Christian Nationalism and the Devil’s Bargain
Source: Chasing Liberty
by Jeff Charles“Christian nationalism is a political movement that seeks to blend its view of Christianity with government power. The objective is to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us through laws and policies. They believe the United States is — or should be — a Christian nation governed by those who subscribe to their religious orthodoxy. In the end, what Christian nationalists want is control. The pursuit of power as a means of control stands in direct opposition to Christ’s teachings.” (01/28/26)
https://www.libertychasers.com/p/christian-nationalism-and-the-devils
- We Have Been Here Before
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman“Congress passes a law. States where the law is unpopular refuse to enforce it. The federal government hires hundreds of armed federal agents, sets then to enforcing the law. Chaos follows, the law is widely violated with the approval of many, including a state governor and prominent media figures. The time is the early Twentieth Century. The law is the Volstead Act, setting up federal enforcement of prohibition. … It is not a perfect parallel to the present situation. Prohibition was the result of a constitutional amendment, was ended by the repeal of that amendment. The present conflict was started by the election of a president with majorities in both houses of Congress who was determined to enforce existing law more energetically than in the past.” (01/28/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/we-have-been-here-before
- On guns, everyone’s a hypocrite
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
by Jonathan Zimmerman“When Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people, two of them fatally, at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020 — in self-defense, he said — Republicans made him into a hero. But when Alex Pretti showed up at an anti-ICE demonstration with a loaded handgun, Trump administration officials condemned him as a ‘would-be assassin’ and a ‘domestic terrorist.’ It’s outrageous. And hypocritical. Yet when it comes to guns, everyone’s a hypocrite right now. All of us are allowing the fatal shooting of Pretti in Minneapolis last week to alter our principles.” [editor’s note: Nope, not all of us – TLK] (01/28/26)
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/alex-pretti-ice-shooting-gun-ownership-hypocrisy-20260128.html
- The Most Socialist System in America Is the One Feeding Us — and It’s Failing
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Mollie Engelhardt“merica loves to debate socialism. We argue about universal healthcare, guaranteed income, student loan forgiveness, and government dependency. We pride ourselves on our rugged independence and belief in free markets. We warn that socialism destroys innovation, freedom, and personal responsibility. But here’s the uncomfortable truth most Americans never stop to consider: the most centrally planned, government-dependent, subsidy-driven system in the United States isn’t medicine, housing, or energy — it’s food.” (01/28/26)
- AI in government: From tools to transformation
Source: Niskanen Center
by Ann Lewis“Artificial intelligence offers potential for governmental transformation, but like all emerging technologies, it can only catalyze meaningful change when paired with effective operating models. Without this foundation, AI risks amplifying existing government inefficiencies rather than delivering breakthroughs. The primary barrier to AI-based breakthroughs is not an agency’s interest in adopting new tools but the structures and habits of government itself, particularly excessive risk management; rigid hierarchies; and organizational silos rather than adaptive problem solving and effective service delivery. Structural reform is critical and must accompany adoption of AI.” (01/28/28)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/ai-in-government-from-tools-to-transformation/
- Literal prostitutes don’t get to define masculinity
Source: Sex and the State
by Cathy Reisenwitz“Whores are the authority on masculinity. If you want to understand hunger, you don’t ask a hungry person. You ask someone who sells food. Whores sell masculinity to men. We don’t put it like that, of course. We sell sex, nominally. Because sex is what masculine men are supposed to want. Sex and power and resources. But they’re not allowed to want anything else. It’s not masculine to want to be touched softly. It’s not masculine to want to feel important or loved or interesting or special or attractive. Feelings are for girls, unless the feeling is anger or lust. It’s the same with food, too. Or really anything else you want to sell. What you’re selling isn’t a product or service, ultimately. It’s a feeling. It’s an experience. It’s a dream. Look at advertising.” (01/28/26)
https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/literal-prostitutes-dont-get-to-define
- Is This a Police State?
Source: Mother Jones
by David Corn“If you deploy a paramilitary force to terrorize the public — which certainly was the goal of flooding ICE and CBP agents into the Twin Cities — you must support your thugs and back up the narrative that the people they brutalize and perhaps kill had it coming. You can’t enforce rules and regs for this force. That will reveal contradictions and undermine your Manichean tale of good (us) and evil (them). This is about power and decidedly not about the rule of law. The aim is to obliterate the rule of law. So are we now in a police state? Not quite.” (01/28/26)
- Canada, California, and Chinese Electric Cars
Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley“On his recent trip to Beijing, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney praised the leadership of Xi Jinping and announced plans to bring 49,000 Chinese electric cars into Canada. In several ways that escaped notice, Carney was following in the footsteps of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. … In the late 1970s, Prime Minister Trudeau allowed the USSR to sell the Soviet-built Lada in Canada. Like all cars produced by Communist regimes, the Lada was an inferior vehicle that failed to catch on with Canadians in a significant way. The ‘plagiarized Fiat,’ as one reviewer called it, was built in the USSR, so the deal did not benefit Canadian auto workers, then struggling to compete with the surging Japanese.” (01/28/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/01/28/canada-california-and-chinese-electric-cars/
- Transmitting Western Civilization
Source: Law & Liberty
by Jeffrey Bristol“The time is ripe for The Golden Thread, James Hankins and Allen Guelzo’s ambitious two-volume history of Western civilization. Coming into a society that has passed its global obsession and is beginning to consider what being particularly rather than universally cultured means (and whether the latter is even possible without the former), there is a felt need for a project like theirs. In this vein, The Golden Thread forms part of a genre well-established in English-speaking popular culture, but one we’ve abandoned in recent decades. I hope its publication indicates revitalization.” (01/28/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/transmitting-western-civilization/
- Goofy Wig and All
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“‘Disguised and undercover,’ explains the O’Keefe Media Group article, ‘James O’Keefe embeds inside the World Economic Forum, slipping past armed security and exclusive guest lists to capture what the global climate elite say when they think no one is listening.’ The bad haircut? A goofy blond wig that Mr. O’Keefe (1984– ) donned to fool the European bigwigs (er, elites). He looked like Andy Warhol as a special guest on ‘Sprockets.’ What did this subterfuge accomplish? ‘Posing as an employee of a fictional climate engineering firm, O’Keefe and the OMG team are welcomed into late-night events, luxury hotels, and mountaintop forums where climate financiers openly discuss carbon taxes, geoengineering, and weather modification, commonly referred to as ‘chemtrails.’’ Yes, chemtrails!” (01/28/26)
- There’s Never Been a More Fitting Time for Democrats to Stop Funding ICE
Source: In These Times
by Sonali Kolhatkar“More Americans now support abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) than keeping it. A January 13, 2026 Economist/YouGov poll found that 46 percent want to eliminate ICE, compared to 43 percent who support preserving it. It’s a trend that’s been growing since ICE agents have been running rampant in U.S. cities during President Donald Trump’s second term. … Senators who believe in compassion and human rights have a unique opportunity to pull back the agency’s powers by refusing to back an appropriations bill passed by the House of Representatives. That bill, according to the ACLU, ’would renew ICE’s excessive budget, with no strings attached, adding to the over $170 billion in taxpayer funds already allocated for immigration enforcement in July 2025.'” (01/28/26)
- Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 01/28/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“The Killing of Alex Pretti and the Siege at Ruby Ridge: Examining the Parallels w/ Jim Bovard.” (01/28/26)
- The Political Orphanage, 01/28/26
Source: The Political Orphanage
“I Time Traveled to Talk to Medieval Yokels about Economics.” (01/28/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/i-time-traveled-to-talk-to-medieval-yokels-about-economics
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 01/28/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Where Is The Next War? Iran? Venezuela?” (01/28/26)
- The Briefing Podcast with Michael Waldman, 01/28/26
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
“Pam Bondi’s ‘Ransom’ Letter (with Wendy Weiser).” (01/28/26)
- Rising, 01/28/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave delivers radar on what he believes as a Republican hypocrisy on the second Amendment and on gun rights after the [murder] of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Minnesota, over the weekend.” (01/28/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5710053-rising-january-28-2026/